Burglary: Criminal Law and Effective Entry

Burglary is an offence under Section 9 of the Thefts Act, which is in 2 separate parts. The first sub section is s9(1)(a) which states â€Å" a person is guilty of burglary if he enters any building or part of a building as a trespasser with the intent to steal, inflict grievous bodily harm, or do unlawful damage to the building or anything in it. † The second part is s9(1)(b) which says â€Å"a person is guilty of burglary if having entered a building or part of a building as a trespasser, he steals or attempts to steal anything in the building or inflicts or attempts to inflict grievous bodily harm on any person in the building†.The difference between the two subsections is the intention at the time of entry. For example s9 (1)(a) the defendant must have the intention to steal, cause GBH or do unlawful damage at the time of entry. For s9 (1)(b) what the defendant intends to do is irrelevant the prosecution must prove that the defendant committed or attempted to commit Theft or GBH. So already there are some confusions with whether or not the defendant would be guilty of Burglary under s9(1)(a) or s9(1)(b). Entry is not defined in the Theft Act, but there have been several cases that help us on what the word â€Å"Entry† actually means.The first case on Entry was the case of Collins 1972. In this case the defendant had drunk alcohol and decided he wanted to have sex. He saw a window that was open and climbed a ladder so he could have a look in. He saw there was a naked girl inside asleep on her bed. So he went down the ladder took off his clothes and climbed back up it to the girls room. She woke up and thought it was her boyfriend and helped him into the bedroom where they had full intercourse. Collins was convicted on s9(1)(a) as he entered with intention to rape.Before 2004 if someone was entering a building with the intention of rape it would be included in this section, but now it is under the Sexual Offences Act. Collins appealed to his conviction as he said that he wasn’t a trespasser when he entered the building as the girl invited him in. The Court of Appeal quashed his conviction as there was no evidence that he was a trespasser and this is what is needed to be guilty of s9(1)(a) and of course Burglary. Brown was also another case that helped clarify what was regarded as entry. The defendant was standing outside but leaning in through a shop window rummaging through the goods.His feet and lower body was outside the shop. The Court of Appeal decided that he had effectively entered the building and therefore his conviction was upheld. However in the case of Ryan the need for effective entry was not followed. In his case the defendant the got trapped in the window he was trying to climb through into a house at 2. 30 am. His head and right arm was stuck inside the house and the rest of his body was outside. This could scarcely be seen to be an effective entry. How ever the Court of Appeal upheld his conv iction as they said the jury could find that the defendant had entered.So what actually qualifies as an effective entry is discovered in these cases. They have clarified by cases like Brown that you will still be guilty of burglary even if your whole body isn’t inside the actual building. Also by cases like the Collins case if you have been invited in by anybody then you cannot be guilty of burglary as you’re not a trespasser. The Theft Act does however give a description of what is considered as a building or part of a building. All inhabited places are considered as buildings so that would include houseboats or caravans, are considered as buildings/dwellings.To be a considered as a building the structure must have some degree of permanence. The main problem for the courts, have occurred where a structure such as a portacabin for example has been used for storage or office work. Moveable structures like this can be seen as buildings even though their use in particular places is only temporary. Section 9 (4) deals with what is considered to be a building and it also says â€Å"buildings include inhabited vehicles or vessels†. Two cases that helped clarify what was considered as a building was the cases B and S v Leathley.In this case a 25 foot long freezer container had been kept in a farmyard for over two years. It was used as a storage facility. It rested on sleepers, had doors with locks and was connected to the electricity supply. This was considered a building because it had some degree of permanence as it was there for 2 years. In the case of Norfolk Constabulary v Seeking and Gould, a lorry trailer with wheels which had been used for over a year for storage, had steps providing access and was connected to electricity supply, was held not be a building.The fact that it had wheels meant that it remained a vehicle. The courts have tried to clarify what a building is but it is still very unclear as some aspects of what the courts look a t are still very difficult, such as how long the structure is there for. â€Å"Part of building† is used to cover situations in which the defendant may have permission to be in one part of the building and is therefore not a trespasser, but doesn’t have permission to be in another part of the building. An example of this is the case of Walkington.In this case the defendant went into a counter area in a shop and opened a till. This area was clearly marked by a three-sided counter. The defendant was convicted of burglary under section 9(1)(a) as he was a trespasser when he went behind the counter. The critical point in this case was that the counter area was not an area where customers were permitted to go. Just like storerooms in shops customers are allowed to be in the shop but not the storeroom. I think that the courts have clarified this very well because of the examples that have used especially the case of Walkington.And the example of people not being allowed in s torerooms but they are allowed in the shop. Also students are allowed in most places in school but they wouldn’t be allowed to stroll into their head teacher’s office. In order for the defendant to commit burglary they must enter as a trespasser. If they have permission to enter then that makes them not a trespasser as we have seen in the Collins case that I have explained above in the first paragraph. The original use of the word trespasser in law comes from the civil law.It was assumed that the meaning of trespasser would be the same as in civil law that â€Å"trespass is entry without the consent of the lawful occupier of the building†. The case of Collins made it clear that there was more required that just the entry. They needed to prove that the defendant entered knowing he was a trespasser or was reckless as to whether or not he was entering the premise of another without permission. Going beyond permission is where the defendant is given permission to en tre but then goes beyond that permission and then is considered a trespasser.This is explained in the case of the Smith and Jones. In this case Smith and his friend went to Smiths fathers house in the middle of the night and took two television set’s without the father’s permission. The father stated that his son would not be a trespasser in the house; he had a general permission to entre. They were convicted for burglary as they had gone beyond their permission to be there. This is similar to the case of Barker v R, where one person was going away and asked the neighbour to watch the house and told them where the key was. The defendant used the key to entre and steal.He was found guilty of burglary. There are many situations where a person has permission to entre for a limited purpose. For example when people go to a concert they are only allowed there for a certain amount of time. The offence of Burglary has been given a definition by Parliament, but it has been left to the courts to clarify all the key points. All the areas have been explained but some have been clarified more than others and as a consequence some areas are still very difficult to understand for example what is a building or part of a building, and going beyond permission.

Six Little Things That Mae a Big Difference

If someone were to ask you†¦Ã¢â‚¬ what things in life really make a big difference in people’s lives?†Ã¢â‚¬ ¦What would you say? I bet some people will say, well, for one, money makes a big difference. Others may say, well, family makes a big difference. And, still others may say that education makes a big difference. I guess there would be as many different responses as the number of persons asked. So, that if I would ask 1000 persons I may get 1000 different things that would make a big difference in people’s lives. I spent some time milling this question over in my own mind, and after eliminating some of the same responses you and many other people would make, like money, education, family, etc., I came up with the following 6 things that make a big difference. Before I give you my list, let me hurry to say that money is not on my list. Money is not one of those things that make a big difference simply because money has a subtle way of ruining things for so many people. More people have gotten a lot of money only to, after a short while, become so attached to their money that other people become obsolete and unimportant to them. Education likewise has caused some people to behave like bigots and egocentric, know-it-all people who rather than encourage people push people away. So, education is not on my list. Nor is family on my list, because family, while crucially important to us, is that default thing that everyone has and needs†¦family is always there making a difference in our lives! It is those little things that make such a big difference. And everyday we have numerous opportunities to practice those little things with enough power to influence people’s lives. When these little things are practiced they produce marvelous results for you! Well, here’s my list of the things that make a big difference in your life: 1. Say â€Å"Masha Danki,† †¦Ã¢â‚¬ Thank You!† Would you believe it, such a small thing, yet when used has a powerful and profound effect on everyone around you! Gratitude is a powerful force that can transform the one who says it; and it transforms the one who receives it. Gratitude from the heart, expressed humbly, heals as it praises. Next time your garbage collector from Serlimar comes by to pick up your garbage, look him in the eye and say â€Å"Thank you for taking my garbage away,† and watch what happens! I guarantee that your garbage collection service from then on will suddenly become the best on your entire street! We need to stop taking things for granted and start being grateful and audibly express gratitude everyday. It is one of those little things that have long lasting positive repercussions! An attitude of gratitude and of saying â€Å"Thanks† can change your life for the better for ever and it can change the lives of those to whom yo u express it. 2. Be Kind and show Kindness: Listen to that elderly lady tell her long story as you attempt to hurry out the store with your groceries. It may mean being a bit late for your next stop, but your kindness in just listening to that senior citizen will give you a greater sense of community, compassion and appreciation for others; and it will significantly calm YOU down when you're feeling stressed and hurried. Somebody said†¦Ã¢â‚¬ Kindness expands, and it fills the space with goodwill and cooperation.† So, the second little thing that makes a huge difference is being kind, that’s a condition of the mind. And showing kindness is a condition of the mind put into actual practice! 3. Listen Attentively: God blessed us with two ears and one mouth, and we ought to use them in that proportion. Listening makes you appear more charming, too, so there's a bonus. We have two ears with which to listen. Two, and not one, because we are expected to listen well. One mouth, because we ought to speak less. When you listen attentively you’ll be amazed how well you connect with the other person. The other person will enjoy your presence and feel elated with your attention. There is magic in good listening, the magic of understanding, of connectivity, of rapport and good will.

The Cons of Drilling for Gas by Hydraulic Fracturing Essay - 1

The Cons of Drilling for Gas by Hydraulic Fracturing - Essay Example The essay "The Cons of Drilling for Gas by Hydraulic Fracturing" talks about the hydraulic fracturing, an industrial process which is water intensive and is used to collect natural gas. And with the examples of multiple basins, the papers will present the environmental implications of hydrofracking in shale gas reservoirs. Before the man could reach the lower part of the crust, shallow wells were dug so as to get the gas. Hydrofracking is the latest method of extracting the gas and it has led to a lot of problems. First, the gases that come out are very poisonous and harmful to human consumption. The ecological imbalance that comes with the drilling process is also very harmful to nature and can lead to the imbalance of nature and all its recourses. Shale gas is the gas that is produced by the shale and there are two functions of the shale. It functions as the reservoir and as the source rock for the natural gas. Due to hydrofracking, many of the shale rocks are known to fracture and this leads to an imbalance in the ecosystem. Hydrofracking involves a lot of pressure that is used so as to bring the gas upwards. The high pressure is of importance and causes the gas to flow upwards, however, the high pressure also has a lot of environmental impacts. It weakens the rocks that are underground when this happens; the result is a weak underground rock structure. This can cause it to sink and hence lead to an earthquake. The main question here is the effect of hydrofracking on the environment.

Trifles a drama by Susan Glaspell Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Trifles a drama by Susan Glaspell - Essay Example The wives, Mrs. Peters and Mrs. Hale accompany the men to take some personal belongings for Mrs. Wright. The men get busy looking for evidence to account for the murder and leave the women to the â€Å"trifles†. It is then that they look around and find the various things in the kitchen and the room upstairs to establish a plausible connection between the murder and the objective. Starting out from the title, â€Å"trifles†. Trifles are things which are little, irrelevant and insignificant. The irony of the matter is that the â€Å"trifles† are so just for the men, and they mean quite a lot to the women. The ruined fruit reserves, symbolize the state of Minnie’s life - she too must have bottled up under the watchfulness of John Wright. The comment Wright makes about wanting only â€Å"peace and quiet† might throw some light on the loneliness of their lives. The messy tabletop also points out to things undone, which could have been because of the disturbed state of mind of Minnie. The coldness in the house also suggests the solemn and sad atmosphere in which they lived. Mrs. Hale comments that the house was never lively, it was down the hollow and did not look up the road and that is why she never felt like coming there. It is evident that a place which looks dreary from the outside must have been quite a burden to live in for Minnie. This coldness also symbolizes the warmth leaving the relationship between the two. The house being down in the hollow, John’s refusal to the party telephone, the childless home, all indicate the lonesomeness of the couple. Minnie who was cheerful and would dress up nice, now stayed in all the time with her songbird as her child. The death of the bird is empathized by Mrs. Peters in remembering the death of her own 2 years old child. What that meant to Mrs. Peters now meant the same to Mrs. Wright. This highlights the graveness of the wrung neck of

Training & Development of Fire & Rescue Staff Dissertation

Training & Development of Fire & Rescue Staff - Dissertation Example This proves that training evaluation can be influenced by training content and design, observable changes in learners, as well as transfer climate, job performance and end results. As organizations must make sure that their programmes and activities for training are consistent to their requirements, it is of great importance that they carry out a comprehensive assessment of training needs that will identify the job tasks for which training and development is needed. Consequently, they will be able to develop training plans for carrying out the necessary training. Table of Contents Chapter 1 Introduction 4 Research Aims 6 Chapter 2 Review of Related Literature 7 Skills for Justice: An Overview 7 Training Needs Assessment 8 Application of Training 10 Training Evaluation and Effectiveness 12 Training and Motivation 16 Conclusion 18 Chapter 3 Methodology 13 Research Approach 19 Research Design 21 Data Gathering Procedures 21 Ethical Considerations 22 Conclusion 22 Chapter 4 Results and D iscussion 24 Learner Readiness 24 Motivation to Transfer 25 Positive and Negative Personal Outcomes 25 Personal Capacity for Transfer 26 Peer Support 26 Supervisory Support and Sanctions 27 Perceived Content Validity 27 Transfer Design 28 Opportunity to Use 28 Transfer Effort-Performance Expectations 29 Resistance/Openness to Change 29 Performance Self-Efficacy 30 Performance Coaching 30 Analysis 31 Chapter 5 Conclusions and Recommendations 33 Conclusion 33 Recommendations 34 References 35 Chapter 1 Introduction Introduction The significance of providing opportunities for training and development for public sector workers is evident through the implementation of different policies as well as the substantial amount of money that the government invests. For an effective and valuable training system to be provided, its effectiveness should be measured as well (Moats, Chermak, and Dooley 2008). Due to financial constraints, agencies and organisations cannot afford the provision of train ing which are not assessed for its importance or contribution to the accomplishment of organisational goals. Training and development should always be congruent with the organisational mission to achieve long-term objectives (Brinkerhoff 2005). Effectiveness is the main component for training and development in any organisation as it allows workers to acquire and develop the skills and knowledge necessary to successfully perform their tasks. For organisations to initiate efficient training for their workers, it is necessary that such systems are evaluated to determine whether these are consistent with the organisation’s overall strategy; moreover, examining the processes and decisions made to ensure the effectiveness of training is also of great importance (Mitroff 2005). Organisations in the public sector have also spent a considerable amount of money to generate a knowledge-based workforce that can be capable of providing efficient services that the community expects. At pr esent, however, numerous complaints and issues have been aimed toward the public sector’s inefficiency in delivering such services. Hence, the current study focuses on the training programmes of the fire and rescue services and how such activities can create

Journal entry Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Journal entry - Essay Example They will also be motivated to deliver the work on time and ensure that they make the best use of time. To this end, new entries could be added to the existing journal as follows: The budget of the project is a reflection of the resources that are going to be put into the project. This shall not be in terms of monetary spending alone. Rather, several areas of the project that demand human resource, capital resource, time resource and energy resource have all been factored into the budget. Again, the budget does not only make a representation of the needed resources that are going to be invested into the project but expected income is also featured. On the whole, the procurement of equipment is expected to be the component of the project that will have a lot of drain on the budget. This is because only brand new machine parts are going to be purchased. Moreover, spending to be made by the staff is also expected to put a lot of financial on the budget. In all, sale of the engines to be produced will be the major source of capital for the project. The development of the project budget goes with the following entries in the journal: Calculating estimated income that the project will eventually yield when it is completed. The income shall be dictated by factors including time of completion, quality of project and number of pieces of equipment made. As already hinted, the quality of the project will go a long way to determine the income that the project is going to yield. This is because in today’s competitive world where value for money has become the order of the day, consumers and customers of good and products expect nothing less than absolute quality. This is a demand that puts the team under pressure to ensure maximum adherence to quality restrictions. To this end, there shall be a special review to the quality management plan that has already been structured to take care of management of quality issues in the project. The new modification shall

Who has the right to write literature about war Essay

Who has the right to write literature about war - Essay Example The first novel about war was written by the male because of their active participation in the war compared to women. Poem about with the theme of men, who walk away, is an explanation of the soldiers in the war. The poem serves as an example of the future generation of the behaviour of men during the war. The pre-war novels were about the role of women during the war. The women responsibility to take cares of domestic chores and had no voice during the war. Most women, who advocated their independence, challenged the novel. Women poets came up with poems that describe their role in the war as opposed to those written by men. Other writers wrote poets that explain if the war occurs or not, the authors state the reasons for the war to occur. For the war to happen there should be a reason. African American literature has been incorporated as part of American literature. However, it is independent of its styles and voices from the American literature. The independence has assisted in reach for many audiences of black origin. In United States, African American literature is criticized for the separation of the writing styles. The separation in literature advocated for women to write about their fellow women and African American to write about the blacks. The new policy in it literature was opposed by the many writers because hinder the literature to explore the entire human race. All the writers have equal right despite the race or the gender background to express their opinion in the literature about the war. In the past, the natives ignored the African American literature. Recently the diverse groups in America have accepted the literature written by the blacks in America because of the reduction in the racial discrimination. In conclusion, all the individuals have a right to write literature about war. The Africa American writers believe that that literature gave them political liberation. The literature presents the truth

Analysis of Earthwear financial statement audit Essay

Analysis of Earthwear financial statement audit - Essay Example The entities major liabilities are accounts payable and liabilities which accrue. The entity has no potential parties who are related to it. Other uses its credit to be able to meet all the normal financing duties. The company accounting financial condition and position is stable and good. There are no individual significant events and any transactions such as those of acquisitions or selling off subsidiaries entities or product line during the financial year. The entity does not have any key contingencies and uncertainties. The firm's business is seasonal and most of the company sales and profits are normally realized during each fourth of the quarter. The regulation in the environment does not expose the firm to any risk neither does the legal and political environment and social factors. Earthwears closest competitors include Patagonia Timberland and Eddie. The firm has enough suppliers hence no single supply can affect the operations of the company. What interests customers alway s keeps on changing hence the firm needs to stay competitive and respond to the demands that keeps on changing like responding to changes in technology. The entity makes use of the accounting principles. No one single individual or individuals is allowed to dominate management and decisions. Decision making is well guided by the organizational structure. ... The management is always responsive to all the recommendations from the auditor. Company policies regarding matters like acceptable business activities conflicts of all interests and conduct are established effectively. Management provides a code of ethics which guide what is right and wrong all dealings with customers are based on principle of honesty. All controls are documented by the management the company maintains an informal job description as well as formal containing the roles of each job. grwdThe management always determines the required skills and expertise needed for each role. And makes sure to proof this with evidence from employees. The management is only motivated to maximize the wealth f the shareholders and not to engage in any activities that may be fraudulent. The management shows and communicates all information regarding internal control and in the process of financial reporting non-financial management do not have excessive participation in the selection of the accounting principles or in the determination of estimates. Financial ratio analysis for Earth wears clothiers. Short-term liquidity ratios The liquidity ratios indicate the liquidity position of a company. They measure the ability of a company to meet its current liabilities as they fall due. Current ratios measure current assets against current liabilities this ratio must be 2:1 in the normal situation. But this ratio may be different for different firms. Other clothiers have a current ratio of 2.17 in 2012 unedited higher than the previous years this shows that either there was a misstatement which occurred because of overstating of revenues or

What is justice what aspects of our society make it a just society Essay

What is justice what aspects of our society make it a just society what aspect make it unjust - Essay Example Majority of values are described as just after the unequal aspects are eliminated to deliver equality. However, the result is better attained using moral values to differentiate a just society from an unjust setting. Justice in society has been determined from the political system or key decision makers that implement governance policies. Sen (2009) suggest that these policies should be placed to balance the resources among all individuals. An unjust system would favour the dominant group in society with the influence to favour poor decisions. The resources in the just society eliminate vices and adverse conditions like poverty. This is because the policies implemented would create equal opportunities to sustain development (Sen, 2009). Injustice prevails when there is intense prevalence of poverty and tyrannical decision making from the leaders. Slave morality as suggested by Nietzsche exemplifies justice within the society. This is because the theory had been placed to support the weak in society in protest against the unjust dictatorial wealthy class. The oppressed should be accorded equal opportunity to express their desires and opinions within a just system to generate equality in the society. The just society has been termed as the system that favours the prevalence of ideas and opinions of all the members in the society. Each member is regarded highly and their requirements provided by their government system. Moreover, the moral values in equality and fairness prevail in a just

Love in the English Medieval Period Essay Example for Free

Love in the English Medieval Period Essay INTRODUCTION The romance of Courtly Love practiced during the Middle Ages was combined with the Code of Chivalry. There were strict rules of courtly love and the members of the courts practiced the art of courtly love across Europe during the Middle Ages. The romance, rules and art of courtly love allowed knights and ladies to show their admiration regardless of their marital state. It was a common occurrence for a married lady to give a token to a knight of her choice to be worn during a medieval tournament. There were rules, which governed courtly love, but sometimes the parties, who started their relationship with such elements of courtly love, would become deeply involved. Examples of relationships, which were stirred by romantic courtly love, chivalry and romance, are described in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight and Chaucer’s Wife of Bath. Many illicit court romances were fuelled by the practice and art of courtly love. The most fertile field of the romance genre was the Arthurian romance. Closely related to the romance tradition were two idealized standards of behavior: chivalry and courtly love. Many modern people think of chivalry as referring to a mans gallant treatment of  women, and although that sense is derived from the medieval chivalric ideal, chivalry includes more than that. Many modern people think of chivalry as referring to a mans gallant treatment of women, and although that sense is derived from the medieval chivalric ideal, chivalry includes more than that. Broadly speaking, chivalry, derived from the old French term for a soldier mounted on horseback, was a knights code of conduct. There was no single set of chivalric rules, but the existence of popular medieval chivalric handbooks testifies that chivalry was a well-known concept. Knights formed a distinct segment of medieval society, which was often thought of as being composed of three classes: those who pray (the clergy), those who fight (the nobility), and those who work (the peasants). Most knights belonged to the nobility, if only because a knights equipment horses, weapons, armor, required considerable resources to fund. Violence, often bloody and horrific violence, was at the heart of what knights did. As highly skilled and well-armed fighting men, knights could be a force either for creating social chaos or for maintaining public order. Unit 1- Background research on courtly love and chivalry 1.1 Courtly love developed in the twelfth century among the troubadours of southern France, but soon spread into the neighboring countries and eventually colored the literature of most of Western Europe for centuries. It originated in the writings of the poet Ovid Ars Amatoria (‘The Art of Love’). Andrà © the Chaplain (or Andreas Cappellanus), took as his model, Ovid’s ‘Ars Amatoria ‘ (the Art of Loving). Ovid’s work concerns how to seduce a woman, and among its rules are appropriate forms of dress, approach, conversation, and toying with a lady’s affections, all designed to amuse. In the Ars Amatoria, the man is in control, and the woman is simply his prey. But Andrà © turned the Ars Amatoria upside-down. In his â€Å"Liber de arte honeste amandi et reprobatione inhonesti amoris† (â€Å"Book of the Art of Loving Nobly and the Reprobation of Dishonourable Love†), the woman becomes the mistress of the game. It is she who sets the rules and passes judgment on the hopeful suitor. In Ovid’s work the lover sighs with passion for his pursuit, but in le Chapelain’s Liber the passion is pure and entirely for the love of a lady. The rules outlined in Andrà ©Ã¢â‚¬â„¢s work are in many ways far  from the reality of the times. In the medieval world, women rarely had any power to speak of. The nobility were warriors, and the arts of war, leadership and politics occupied their minds. More often than not, a noblemen thought of his wife, (or future wife) as a breeder, a servant, and a source of sexual gratification (his, not hers). Fidelity on her part was absolutely necessary to ensure the validity of the bloodline. Fidelity on his part wasn’t an issue. Under any other circumstances, le Chapelain’s Liber might have remained an interesting literary exercise (as Ovid’s Ars Amatoria was intended to be); or it might have been ignored or laughed out of serious literary circles. But with the historical background at precisely the right stage of development, in the court of Eleanor and under the guidance of Marie, Andrà ©Ã¢â‚¬â„¢s ‘Art of Loving Nobly’ was literature to be lived. Two women who had a particular influence on the development of romance were Eleanor of Aquitaine, queen first of France and then of England, and her daughter Marie, Countess of Champagne (in Eastern France). Eleanor brought to the English court her interest in poetry, music and the arts, all of which were cultivated at the court of Aquitaine where she grew up (her grandfather William was the first known troubadour poet). In the vernacular narratives that were written for and dedicated to Eleanor-early ‘romances’-we find an emphasis on the sort of love relationship that is depicted in troubadour poetry, commonly known as ‘courtly love’ (fin’amors in Provenà §al, the language of troubadour poetry). The ‘courtly love’ relationship is modeled on the feudal relationship between a knight and his liege lord. The knight serves his courtly lady (love service) with the same obedience and loyalty, which he owes to his liege lord. She is in complete control of the love relationship, while he owes her obedience and submission (a literary convention that did not correspond to actual practice!) The knight’s love for the lady inspires him to do great deeds, in order to be worthy of her love or to win her favor. Thus ‘courtly love’ was originally construed as an ennobling force whether or not it was consummated, and even whether or not the lady knew about the knights love or loved him in return. The ‘courtly love’ relationship typically was not between husband and wife, not because the poets and the audience were inherently immoral, but because  it was an idealized sort of relationship that could not exist within the context of ‘real life’ medieval marriages. In the middle ages, marriages amongst the nobility were typically based on practical and dynastic concerns rather than on love. The idea that a marriage could be based on love was a radical notion. But the audience for romance was perfectly aware that these romances were fictions, not models for actual behavior. The adulterous aspect that bothers many 20th-century readers was somewhat beside the point, which was to explore the potential influence of love on human behavior. Social historians such as Eric Kà ¶hler and Georges Duby have hypothesized that courtly love may have served a useful social purpose: providing a model of behavior for a class of unmarried young men that might otherwise have threatened social stability. Knights were typically younger brothers without land of their own (hence unable to support a wife) who became members of the household of the feudal lords whom they served. One reason why the lady in the courtly love relationship is typically older, married and of higher social status than the knight may be because she was modeled on the wife of the feudal lord, who might naturally become the focus of the young, unmarried knights desire. Kà ¶hler and Duby posit that the literary model of the courtly love relationship may have been invented in part to provide these young men with a model for appropriate behavior, teaching them to sublimate their desires and to channel their energy into socially useful behavior (love service rather th an wandering around the countryside, stealing or raping women like the knight in the ‘ Wife of Bath’s tale). Ovid described the symptoms of love as if it were a sickness. The lovesick knight became a conventional figure in medieval romance. Typical symptoms: sighing, turning pale, turning red, fever, inability to sleep, eat or drink. Romances often contained long interior monologues in which the lovers describe their feelings. For the troubadours of 12th C France who introduced it into literature, Courtly love had two basic, essential characteristics: Love is irresistible and it is an ennobling force. No one is exempt from the service of the God of love who rules this world and extramarital sexual love, sinful to Christians, is the sole source of worldly worth and excellence. All the other characteristics of love that appear in the Canterbury Tales, for example, are simply trappings  decorations. These belong to the general body of love literature. Yet these trappings, so ludicrous when exaggerated, have caused courtly love to be confused with romantic love and have brought it into disrep ute. Since love is irresistible, nothing done under its compulsion can be immoral; since humans are worthless unless they acts under this compulsion, the necessity of practicing love in incumbent on each person. Courtly love not only approves and encourages whatever fans and provokes sensual desire, it not only condones fornication, adultery, and sacrilege, but it represents them as necessary sources of what it calls virtue. Love is a union of heart and mind as well as body. Sensuality for its own sake, the enjoyment of fleshly delights of and for themselves, is contrary to courtly love. The wanton and the promiscuous practice such love. Hence, in the courtly love code fidelity is its greatest virtue and infidelity its greatest vice. Yet the Roman Church formally condemned both principles of courtly love. Archbishop Stephen Tempier at Paris condemned the irresistibility of love and love as the sole source of human worth on March 7, 1277. 1.2 What is Chivalry? Chivalry is a system of discipline and social interaction that is derived from the warrior class of medieval times, especially and primarily the class of trained warriors who participated in the Crusades (12th-14th centuries). Chivalry has a discipline because those ancient soldiers trained themselves daily through learning and practicing the arts of attack and self-defense. These arts gave rise to the idea of control of the body, mind, and speech in the Knight. Further, the idea of social interaction developed because the Knight originally followed carefully the orders of his superiors who were interested only in battle with those who were eligible to fight, that is, civilians were not to be engaged in battle. From this idea of engaging only other Knights developed the idea of treating enemies and friends fairly and equally. Men who excelled in battle were honored with Knighthood, an honor first granted by Knights only. Then, later, as the honor of being a Knight grew, both Monarchy and the Church (Eastern Orthodox as well as Roman Catholic) began to participate in the selection and creation of Knights. While the ideals of Knighthood were often violated by the Knight warriors themselves, yet the  ideals survived as Knighthood came to be thought of as an honor to be bestowed upon those who had proven themselves worthy. When the practice of the volunteer army and the need for Knights as warriors faded away, the concept of the honorable and self-disciplined Knight remained, and the rank and status of Knight began to take on aspects of minor Nobility that one could achieve (rather than having to be born into). As an honor and status that men sought, Knighthood became a valuable gift and boon for Kings and Church to grant, either individually as a ‘Knight Bachelor’ or as membership in an Order of Chivalry. Chivalry sets a standard of conduct that transcends era or culture. It maintains a code of conduct that traditionally [upholds] a practical guide to living in a changing world, and it provides discipline within an undisciplined environment. Chivalry embraces a spiritual path of personal development that combines bravery and gentleness with a fierce compassion for the welfare of others. The knights interest and goal in life is to protect those who cannot defend, be it physical, spiritual, or economical and to fulfill a desire for personal excellence. UNIT 2 The chivalrous ideal and courtly love in ’’Sir gawain and the Green Knight’’ and ’’The Wife of Bath ’’ 2.1 A knights behavior toward women, at least in the romance tradition, was governed by another standard known as courtly love. Medieval writers did not necessarily use that term, but it is a convenient modern label for an idea that appears frequently in medieval literature. In Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, the poets term for it is courtesy. Scholars have debated whether courtly love was a social reality or purely a literary fiction, but in either case, it was a pervasive and influential notion. The ties between the romance genre and the courtly love tradition were well established even at this time, for when Cappellanus offered his rules of love, he brackets them with a story involving a knight on the way to the court of King Arthur. The courtly lover was a man (often a knight) who devoted himself to the service of his beloved lady, making himself her servant; if he was a knight; all of his brave deeds were dedicated to his lady. Marriage to others was not a barrier to such love affairs, which were to be kept secret, with clandestine meetings and messages between the lovers relayed by go-betweens.  The lovers usually exchanged gifts or favors, normally a personal item such as a ring, glove, or girdle, all of which appear in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. True lovers became faint or sick with the strength of their love; sleeplessness, lack of appetite, and jealousy were all symptoms of true love. A lover was expected to have fine manners and display perfect gentility. As with chivalry, the tension between courtly love and Christian morality was unavoidable. Much of the courtly love tradition assumed that the lovers would consummate their relationship sexually, regardless of whether they were married. A more Christianized version of courtly love placed the lover in courteous but decidedly chaste service to his beloved. Like chivalry, courtly love may have been more of an ideal than an actual practice, but that did not lessen its cultural importance. At first glance, Sir Gawain and the Green Knight seem to be a relatively simple story about the quest of a knight in Arthurian Camelot. Upon further examination, however, it becomes clear that interwoven within the simple plotline is an intricate relationship between men and women with an emphasis on the values of the time. Throughout this work, we are privy to a variety of literal and figurative dichotomies including those between men and women, court values and church values, girdle and pentacle, the Green Knight and Sir Gawain, Guinevere and Morgan de Fay, and the Virgin Mary and Lady Bertilak. During the medieval period, the court and the church were of utmost importance codes of chivalry in the court were substantial factors in dictating the etiquette and specific behaviors of people as demonstrated through its literature. What seems to have happened in medieval literature is this: the pre-courtly love literature presented a fairly accurate portrait of womens role in society. Then, with the advent of courtly love some authors felt the need to conform the role of women in literature to that which was assigned to them by the philosophy of courtly love. (Malcor). In a sense, the medieval work in question does not seem to draw exclusively from either the pre-courtly or courtly genres in its discussion of the role of women, rather we see a multitude of different women portrayed in clearly contrasting manners. Most notably, Lady Bertalik becomes a major figure of this work, as well as a symbol of knightly virtues, or lack thereof. In the third part of Sir Gawain  and the Green Knight, the story turns to Sir Gawain and Lady Bertalik; on three successive days, Lady Bertalik meets Sir Gawain in his bedchambers and attempts to seduce him. During the first two days, though tempting, Gawain manages to remain a model of both courtly and religious restraint and behavior; meanwhile, Lady Bertalik extends herself as the aforementioned ‘’fairly accurate portrait of womens role in society.’’ While some women of the time succeeded in being entirely pure, it was not uncommon for damsels to try and seduce men as they traveled about the lands. The third morning, however, Gawain succumbs to his own fear of death and accepts the lesser of two gifts offered by Lady Bertalik on promises that the magical girdle will protect him from all harm. ‘’[The girdle] was wrought of green silk, and gold, only braided by the fingers, and that she offered to the knight, and besought him though it were of little worth that he would take it,’’ while in reality, Lady Bertalik is knowingly tricking the unsuspecting knight (Weston, Part III). In addition, Lady Bertaliks gift is a strong symbol of womanhood and parallels both facets of pre-courtly and courtly literature. Like Lady Bertalik, the girdle is similar to the depiction of pre-courtly realism in which women maintained their outward appearance, but also had inner, wild sexual desires that were often unleashed as it is meant to be tied, but then removed to allow for free movement and expression. In slight contrast, the girdle may also illustrate the more courtly and idealistic viewpoint due to its restrictive qualities, which in theory, forces the girdle-clad to appear as a woman. The idea of the girdle enforcing a female faà §ade is lost, however, when Gawain, himself, dons the green article; thereby, excusing the idea that the girdle has any semblance of courtly qualities. For purposes of this argument that Sir Gawain and the Green Knight entertains two separate depictions of society through literature, the realistic and the philosophical it is Guinevere who plays Lady Bertilaks opposite. Though she appears only briefly in this text, her role in courtly society is quite obvious. Seen at the opening feast given by her husband, King Arthur, Guinevere sits regally, but quietly beside her husband. While she expresses some momentary discontent when Arthur first offers himself up to the Green Knight it is almost entirely based upon her role as a  woman and the wife of the king. In this particular piece of Arthurian literature, Guinevere is defined by specific binaries; she is only what the king is not and she behaves the way that Lady Bertalik does not. Given this role, Guinevere exemplifies the pre-courtly disposition of behavior and remains the passive and silent, but perfect queen. As demonstrated through the actions and general social conduct of Lady Bertalik and Guinevere, Sir Gawain and the Green Knight displays a variety of women in several blatantly contrasting roles. While this, does substantiate the suggestion that the behavior of women has been projected differently throughout medieval literature. Like most medieval literature, Sir Gawain and the Green Knight participate in several important literary traditions that its original audience would have instantly recognized. Medieval poets were expected to re-use established source materials in their own works. Modern readers sometimes mistakenly take this as evidence of how lacking in creativity and originality the Middle Ages were. In reality, much of the interest of medieval literature comes from recognizing how one work of literature pulls against those that came before it, makes subtle changes from its sources, and invests old material with new meanings. One can read Sir Gawain and the Green Knight as simply a rollicking tale of adventure and magic or, alternatively, as a lesson in moral growth. However, understanding some of the literary and cultural background that Sir Gawain and the Green Knight draws upon can provide modern readers with a fuller view of the poems meaning. 2.2 The Prologue and Tale of the Wife of Bath are among the most popular parts of The Canterbury Tales, and also cause a lot of trouble for critics. There are many various opinions about the character of Alison, ranging from utter individuality of the character to her being only a refined archetype of the old go-between. Many consider the disparity of her Prologue and Tale so problematic that there is need to explain the duality of her personality, and again many others focus on the common features of the Prologue and Tale. Probably the only thing about Wife of Bath’s Tale on which the critics agree is that its narrative voice and choice of topic is distinctly feminine, the  world of her tale is inhabited by women with occasional obedient men. Alison is a feminist of her own making. Although many say that in the end she still submits to the rule of the patriarchal world, they do not take into account the time of her creation. When Alison struggles for respect in her own household, there is absolutely no awareness of feminine desire for equality, and it will still need several centuries before the Precieuses movement starts in France, influencing the whole Europe. Alison lives in a patriarchal world with strict views of women, and her domestic revolution seems outrageous in her times. Yet, in her Prologue, she argues that there is need for a distinctly feminine voice and tradition. Judging by Alison’s Prologue, it seems extremely difficult for a woman to accept her position in the male tradition. In her Prologue, she therefore uses the traditional patriarchal ideas and expression, and yet she bends them to suit her purpose. When she argues for marriage as an equally important alternative to virginity, she quotes St. Paul, the major male authority that prefers virginity. But it is obvious that the educated account of texts she shows the reader is only knowledge acquired from her husbands, as the read er is later to realize. She is incapable of reading the texts for herself; otherwise she would not use Jerome’s interpretation of the encounter of Jesus and the Samaritan woman beside a well. She would use the source text to impeach Jerome’s interpretation. But the Wife of Bath lacks the knowledge that it was not Jesus but the Samaritan woman herself who said she had no husband. Although the mind of the Wife is captured in medieval paradigms about women, she would gladly argue with Jerome just like she argued with her clerk husband, had she the knowledge of the original biblical text. The Wife also draws a decisive line between the biblical texts, which in no way express any obligation concerning the number of marriages, and the Church tradition created by men with no experience of marriage. What St. Paul says is not a rule, it is only advice: â€Å"Advice is no commandment in my view./ He left it in our judgment what to do† (CT, 278). After her biblical lecture where the Wife uses many examples from the Old Testament to show there are no strict rules established about marriage, she moves on to what she promises at the beginning of her Prologue, to experience: If there were no authority on earth Except experience; mine, for what it’s worth, And that’s enough for me, all goes to show That marriage is a misery and a woe; (CT,  276) Yet, as she has also shown, women’s reputation for zealous confessing paradoxically opened up opportunities of empowerment, as a number of female sham mystics, working with their attend- ant priests, created a lucrative theatre of spirituality in which the woman was the center of attention. The Wife of Bath’s Tale itself is another genre-experiment, which enacts the Wife’s speculation: By God! If women had written stories, As clerkes han withinne hire oratories, They wolde han written of men moore wikkednesse Than al the mark of Adam may redresse. (III (D), 693–6) The Tale is the retelling of a fairy mistress tale in which a knight finds that he can save his life only if he can find the answer to the question of what women want most. He goes on a quest in search of the answer and meets a loathsome old hag who tells him that women most want to have control over men. The knight escapes death at the hands of his enemies, but in return must marry the old hag. In bed on their marriage night, she persuades him to face her, whereupon he finds that she has transformed into a beautiful young girl. She asks him whether he would prefer to have her beautiful by day or by night, but tired by now of trick questions, the knight leaves the decision in her hands. Because he has capitulated to her, she promises to stay young and beautiful always, and they live happily ever after. What a synopsis effaces is the way in which this story can be adapted to prompt various responses. In the anonymous Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, the narrative framework is deployed to allow Gawain, as hero, to demonstrate extreme chivalric behavior and win audience approval. Chaucer’s adaptation is more radical. The hero is a rapist, forced into the bargain set by the ladies of the court to save his life. There is no indication that he is remorseful, nor that the quest is penitential. He comes upon the hag because he spies on some young girls dancing in a wood, and much less emphasis is put on the grotesque appearance of the hag than in other romance versions. The radical change, however, is that he walks into the bargain with the hag without knowing his part in advance. She accompanies him back to the court where the bargain is uttered in public. The quest is, therefore, manipulated so that instead of being morally enhanced, the hero is humiliated. He has no chance to dem onstrate Florent’s stoicism as all his opportunities for displaying bravery and chivalry are pre-empted by powerful and cynical  women. The values of chivalry are transposed ironically into a lecture given by the transformed hag to her husband on their wedding night in bed. The relationship between Prologue and Tale is not so much the simple matter of the Tale being adapted as the wish-fulfillment of the invented narrator; rather the two sit in parallel, drawing attention through their internal juxtapositions of authorities and lived experiences, to the gap between official society and its mores, as enshrined in textual traditions, and the operation of other behaviors and performances. Her struggle is not one for domination in the relationship, as both her Prologue and Tale show. It is a struggle for love. She wants to be treated like a beloved lady in the courtly tradition, and repay her loving husband with respect and obedience. The essentially better view is that â€Å"as a kind of special representative of Chaucer in the matter, she believes in harmony between partners, however it is arrived at† (Stone, 85). Of course, it is difficult to pass judgment on Chaucer’s personal views, as Chaucer was very careful about revealing his opinions, but the choice of the topic, and the portrayal of the shrewish wife as an understandable and rather likeable character might be a certain sign of Chaucer’s own attitude. For all the problems in her first four marriages, Alison does not lose hope yet. In her climactic marriage with Jankin, the only one that ends up as a success, she is looking for love. She already has enough money and a good social standing, she could be very satisfied as a widow, a woman no longer subjected to any man’s whim, and yet she decides to marry again. Alison needs her own money and the independence it gives. The General Prologue suggests that she also needs her own work and the status that goes with success. But she wants love as well and, in her relationship with Jankin, is romantic enough to believe that it will make money irrelevant .When Alison finds out she lost not only her money, which by the right of marriage now belongs to her husband, but also her integrity as her young husband tries to change her into an obedient wife with no life of her own, she starts to fight him. But before the physical struggle is described, Chaucer gives us a mental picture of Alison’s state, a picture of a tormented woman who lacks the words to defend herself, while her husband has all the available verbal weapons. CONCLUSION The poet positions Gawain at the center of the unresolved tensions between chivalry, courtly love, and Christianity. Gawain is famed as the most courteous of knights. In one sense, this creates the expectation that his behavior will be irreproachable; in another, it assumes that he will be the most delightful of lovers for the lady who can snare him. The Lady of Haut desert exploits this tension to the fullest as she attempts to seduce Gawain. But the poet has also made clear that the beloved lady whom Gawain serves first is the Virgin Mary. As a thoroughly Christianized knight, he is forced to walk a fine line in defending himself. He cannot offend a lady, but neither can he give his hostess what she wants, because in doing so, he would be committing a sexual sin, as well as breaking chivalric loyalty and honor by betraying his host. Sir Gawain and the Green Knight cannot, therefore, be called a straightforward romance. It makes use of most of the conventions and ideals of the Arthurian romance, yet also points out its contradictions and failings. Sir Gawain and the Green Knight is not an anti-romance, however, nor is it a parody, despite its lightness and good humor. When Chaucer laughs at Sir Thopas, he is mocking a tired genre, but when the Gawain-poet laughs, it is the generous laughter of friendship. The poets conservative and traditional approach to his timeworn material is what allows him to make it so engaging: He understands and thoroughly appreciates the conventions of his genre. Sir Gawain and the Green Knight manages to highlight the weakest points of the chivalric tradition while still appreciating everything that makes chivalry so attractive, especially its uncompromising devotion to the highest ideals, even if those ideals are not necessarily attainable (accomplished). Andreas got the Christian world to accept his concept of love by the device of the double truth. Although Christian teaching and his De Amore are basically irreconcilable, they may exist side by side each in its own sphere. His main purpose was to provide a pseudo-psychological and logical basis for the ideas and ideals of the troubadours. Reasoning and building on the nature of love and of humanity, he showed that love is the greatest good in this world, that it constitutes earthly happiness, and that it is the place of origin of all earthly good. Andreas proposed logically that if humans are viewed solely as rational and natural creatures, subject  only to the laws of nature and reason, then they must enroll in the army of the god of love and seek the pleasures of the flesh so that they may be ennobled and grow in virtue and in worth. Aware of the immoral and heretical implications of his work, Andreas wrote On the Rejection of Love where he condemned Courtly love and implicitly retracted all he had written. A strong possibility exists that Chaucer knew of the so-called double truth. He would have been aware of the dangers involved in writing romances of Courtly Love, the risk of an accusation of upholding immorality and heresy. He possibly set out to meet these dangers: 1. He is not interested in giving Courtly love a logical and philosophical grounding; he simply uses it as a vehicle for his love stories. 2. Andreas suggests he writes from experience. Chaucer states again and again that he is not writing on love from personal knowledge from experience or from his own feelings on the subject. Chaucers status is always as a non-participant in lovea rank outsider. His relationship to love and lovers is to be their clerk, their servant and instrument to gladden them and advance them in their individual cause. He doesnt participate because he is unsuitable. Chaucer did strive for religious orthodoxy when, in the words of the Parsons Tale, he protests that he will stand for correction. If his repudiation is not in fear, it might be a salve to a Christian conscience revolted at the utter incompatibility of Courtly Love with the tenets of Christian morality and faith. SUFFERING Love brings with it love melancholy or suffering. This was studied and in fact written on at length during the Renaissance, but it was known and made part of the fictional lover during Chaucers time. All in all, Chaucer’s attitude to women in The Canterbury Tales can hardly be judged as anti ­feminist. His portrayals of women are splendid and still attractive centuries after. He does not assert the male dominance in all his tales but he realistically employs different narrators to express different attitudes. Some of the tales question the medieval system of authorities, yet none of them is openly subversive. Chaucer’s female narrators cannot be judged by today’s standards of feminism and when they are looked at from the medieval point of view, the undertone of feminism in their behavior and tales emerges. They are concerned with bettering the conditions for women; they challenge the authorities in their tales. And although the women of the male tales are no revolutionaries, they are still humane enough for a modern  reader to enjoy. Chaucer does not portray women’s struggle for self-assertion, he unfolds the complex web of his society. Chaucer’s attitude to women as shown in his works is more complex than that of his contemporaries, and at the same time remains within the borders given by the society. Chaucer is a very careful poet and as such may be found inconvenient by some modern feminists. BIBLIOGRAPHY: Primary sources: Sri Gawain and the Green Knight Wife of Bath Secondary sources: Umbetro, Eco. Cum se face o teza de licenta, Polirom, Bucuresti, 2006 Dutu, Carmen. Eseuri si dizertatii. Metodologia crearii unei lucrari stintifice, Editura Universitara Bucuresti, 2012 G. C. Thornley and Gwyneth Roberts. An Outline of English Literature, Longman, Essex, 2008 Chretien de Troyes. Arthurian romances, Penguin Books Ltd, Englad 1991 Andreas Capellanus, The art of courtly love, Columbia University Press, New York 1960 Bruce J. Douglas. Evolution of Arthurian romance from the beginnings down to the year 1300, Gloucester, Mass Peter Smith 1958 Michel, Pastoureanu. La vie quotidienne en France et en Angleterre au temps des chevaliers de la Table Ronde, Hachette, Paris, 1976 [ 1 ]. Courtly love. Modern term popularized by C. S. Lewis to describe the various kinds of love between man and woman described in the works of *trou- badours and others between the 11c and the 13c. The range of feeling ran from the dutiful respect owed a lord’s wife, to the adulterously sexual. One relationship was excluded, that between husband and wife. The genre first appeared in Provence and then spread through Europe. Appearing at much the same time as Arthurian tales, the two created a potent and memorable mix of *chivalry and romance. The French phrase amour courtois is a 19c coin- age. – Cf. Aubade; Pastourelle [ 2 ]. b. 43 BCE, Roman who wrote a parody on the technical treatises on loving. [ 3 ]. The Ars amatoria (English: The Art of Love) is an instructional book series elegy in three books by Ancient Roman poet Ovid. It was written in 2 AD. It is about teaching basic Gentlemanly male and female relationship skills and techniques. [ 4 ]. Andreas Capellanus was the 12th-century author of a treatise commonly known as De amore (About Love), and often known in English, somewhat misleadingly, as The Art of Courtly Love, though its realistic, somewhat cynical tone suggests that it is in some measure an antidote to courtly love. [ 5 ]. Eleanor of Aquitaine was one of the wealthiest and most powerful women in Western Europe during the High Middle Ages . As well as being Duchess of Aquitaine in her own right, she was queen consort of France (1137–1152) and of England (1154–1189). She was the patroness of such literary figures as Wace, Benoà ®t de Sainte-Maure, and Bernart de Ventadorn. She belonged to the French House of Poitiers, the Ramnulfids. [ 6 ]. Marie of France, Countess of Champagne (1145 – March 11, 1198) was the elder daughter of Louis VII of France and his first wife, Eleanor of Aquitaine. [ 8 ]. French bishop of Paris during the 13th century. He was Chancellor of the Sorbonne from 1263 and bishop of Paris fro m 1268.He is best remembered for promulgating a Condemnation of 219 philosophical and theological propositions (or articles) that addressed ideas and concepts that were being discussed and disputed in the faculty of Arts at the University of Paris. [ 9 ]. Chivalry is as much about the skills and manners of a warrior class as with a literature derived from the deeds of those warriors, but presented in an idealized fashion which returned to define the manners of the warriors. Chivalry was a collocation of qualities made into a coherent ideal: skill and courage, and a craving for glory or fame acquired through knightly skills and its necessary courage. [ 10 ]. Linda Ann Malcor Ph. D is an American scholar of Arthurian legend. She was selected as an Overseas Associate Member of the Late Antiquity Research Group.

Neurons; semi-permeable membrane

Neurons; semi-permeable membrane Neurons are covered by a semi-permeable membrane that contains Ion Channels. These ion channels open and close to let positive ions, such as sodium (Na+) and potassium (K+), and negative ions, like chlorine (Cl-), enter the neuron. Ion channels are closed when the neuron is not transmitting information or is resting. Using a device called the oscilloscope, neuroscientists have found that the Resting Potential of a neuron (or the electrical charge of a resting neuron) is -70 millivolts (mV). Thus, an electric eel having 8,400 neurons can generate up to 588 V! Because a resting neuron is negatively charged in relation to its positive surrounding (that is, more negative ions are present inside the cell body of the neuron), a resting neuron is said to be polarized. However, when dendrites receive neurotransmitters from neighboring neurons, the ion channels open up and let positive ions depolarize the neuron. The Action Potential of a neuron (or the electrical charge of an activated neuron) depends upon the kind of neurotransmitter housed by the neuron. The qualitative differences between neurons result to variation in their voltage threshold. A depolarized neuron that has reached its voltage threshold â€Å"fires† at a level of intensity that remains unchanged, called the All-or-None principle, and as fast as 0.001 second. The brief wave of positively charged ions inside the neuron pushes the synaptic vesicles at the end of the terminal buttons, thereby releasing the neurotransmitters to the Synapse or the Synaptic Gap, the small gap between neurons. Neurotransmitters that are released in the synapse do not move in a predictive manner; rather, they randomly wander along the synaptic gap. Different neurotransmitters have different shapes, and the shapes serve as keys for opening the receptor sites at the dendrites of the receiving neuron. After the neurotransmitter activates the receiving neuron, they are then reabsorbed back in the synaptic vesicles of the terminal buttons of the releasing neuron. The re-absorption causes the neuron to get polarized and rest once again. In summary, the pre-synaptic neuron releases neurotransmitters that activate the post-synaptic neuron, which, in turn, releases neurotransmitters that can further activate other neighboring neurons. In this manner, electrical transmission is converted into chemical code, and back to electricity. This is the reason why the nervous system is characterized with electrochemical transmission. However, communication between neurons is not a linear path. Known as the Volley principle, a firing neuron can activate many neurons at once; vice versa, a neuron can be activated by the simultaneous firing of neurons that have different neurotransmitter types. Neurotransmitters are the chemicals released by a neuron to communicate with another neuron. They may be excitatory or inhibitory. Excitatory Neurotransmitters are those that activate other neurons to fire, while Inhibitory Neurotransmitters are those that restrain neurons to fire. There are currently fifty (50) discovered neurotransmitters. The six (6) types of neurotransmitters featured below are those that have major effects on behavior. * Acetylcholine or Ach is an excitatory neurotransmitter involved in muscular action, learning and memory. It is located throughout the central and peripheral nervous system. Low level of acetylcholine is associated with Alzheimers Disease, a degenerative disease wherein neurons die at a rate faster than normal. Up to date, no treatment has been found to cure this deadly disease. Drugs that supply ACh are only used to delay or reduce the rate of neuronal death. * Dopamine is an inhibitory neurotransmitter that controls voluntary movement, sleep, mood, attention and learning. Inhibition is a very important element for controlled action. Low level of dopamine is associated with Parkinsons Disease, wherein patients shake uncontrollably on different parts of the body. The disease is also degenerative, so that the shaking can range from mild to extremely uncomfortable. On the other hand, high level of dopamine is observed among schizophrenic patients. * Endorphinis an excitatory neurotransmitter involved in feelings of pleasure. Endorphins are called the natural opiates in the body and serve as pain killers especially on pregnant women during labor and delivery. High level of endorphins is also observed among long-distance runners and persons shocked from a traumatic accident. * Gamma Amino Butyric Acid or GABA is an inhibitory neurotransmitter that controls the electrochemical communication among neurons. It is located only in the central nervous system, and fills one-third (1/3) of the brains synapses. Low level of GABA is associated with anxiety. * Norepinephrine is both inhibitory and excitatory. It controls alertness and regulates sleep and wakefulness with ACh. As an inhibitory neurotransmitter, norepinephrine acts like GABA in preventing neurons from firing uncontrollably. As an excitatory neurotransmitter, it activates the heart muscles, the intestine and the neuro-genital tract. (For more information on how norepinephrine affects the body, consider reading about the endocrine system from the article â€Å"What are the Biological Foundations of Behavior?†) Low level of norepinephrine is linked with depression, while high level of norepinephrine is associated with agitation and mania. * Serotonin is an inhibitory neurotransmitter that works with Ach and norepinephrine in regulating sleep, mood, attention and learning. Just like norepinephrine, low level of serotonin is associated with depression.

Detecting Wireless LAN MAC Address Spoofing Essay -- Technology Techno

Detecting Wireless LAN MAC Address Spoofing Abstract An attacker wishing to disrupt a wireless network has a wide arsenal available to them. Many of these tools rely on using a faked MAC address, masquerading as an authorized wireless access point or as an authorized client. Using these tools, an attacker can launch denial of service attacks, bypass access control mechanisms, or falsely advertise services to wireless clients. This presents unique opportunities for attacks against wireless networks that are difficult to detect, since the attacker can present himself as an authorized client by using an altered MAC address. As nearly all wireless NICs permit changing their MAC address to an arbitrary value – through vendor-supplied drivers, open-source drivers or various application programming frameworks – it is trivial for an attacker to wreak havoc on a target wireless LAN. This paper describes some of the techniques attackers utilize to disrupt wireless networks through MAC address spoofing, demonstrated with captured traffic that was generated by the AirJack, FakeAP and Wellenreiter tools. Through the analysis of these traces, the author identifies techniques that can be employed to detect applications that are using spoofed MAC addresses. With this information, wireless equipment manufacturers could implement anomaly-based intrusion detection systems capable of identifying MAC address spoofing to alert administrators of attacks against their networks. Introduction MAC addresses have long been used as the singularly unique layer 2 network identifier in LANs. Through controlled, organizationally unique identifiers (OUI) allocated to hardware manufacturers, MAC addresses are globally unique ... ... Network administrators and intrusion analysts need to be aware of the risks associated with 802.11 network deployment, and the techniques that can be used to identify malicious client activity. Works Cited AirJack. â€Å"Advanced 802.11 Attack Tools.† URL: http://802.11ninja.net/ (12 Nov 2002). FakeAP. â€Å"Black Alchemy Weapons Lab.† URL: http://www.blackalchemy.to/project/fakeap/ (19 Dec 2002). IEEE. â€Å"IEEE OUI and Company_id Assignments.† URL: http://standards.ieee.org/regauth/oui/oui.txt (13 Nov 2002). Malinen, Jouni. â€Å"Host AP driver for Intersil Prism2/2.5/3.† File: README.prism2, URL: http://hostap.epitest.fi/ (13 Nov 2002). Schiffman, Mike. â€Å"Radiate 802.11b frame handling.† URL: http://www.packetfactory.net/projects/radiate/ (13 Nov 2002). Wellenreiter. â€Å"Wireless LAN Discovery and Auditing Tool† URL: http://www.remote-exploit.org/ (19 Dec 2002).

The Problem With Teaching Creationism in the Science Classroom Essay

The creation stories in Genesis, though they tackle similar themes, have different points of view and focuses as to the fundamentals of the creation process. The first story centers on the process by which God creates the universe as a whole. In essence, He imposes order upon chaos: â€Å"And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep† (Genesis 1:2, King James Version). From this raw state, He delineates different aspects of the cosmos from the night and day all the way down to man and woman. The second, on the other hand, fixates on the particulars of creating a world for humans to inhabit. Unlike the first story, man is created early in God's process after which vegetation and animals are formed, the former of which for man to take care of and the latter as an aid to man. Later, the narrative turns to philosophical matters, such as introducing the concept of good and evil, in addition to explaining such things as work and pain du ring childbirth. Such ideas are not present in the first story, which, as mentioned, takes less of an interest in the specific impact of mankind's presence in the world and more of one at the cosmic level. These stories find their roots in the cultures that surrounded the Hebrews at the time of their writing. They share motifs with other creation stories of the Near East. The flood account in The Epic of Gilgamesh, when compared with the flood narrative in Genesis, is often cited as an example of such a similarity between Genesis and other Near Eastern texts. However, the creation stories of the first two chapters of Genesis find links with other Near Eastern creation myths. The Enuma elish is a Near Eastern creation myth that contains a god who creates the... ...the Board's ID Policy violates the Establishment Clause† and that â€Å"ID cannot uncouple itself from its creationist, and thus religious, antecedents† (Kitzmiller v. Dover). Leaving aside all personal opinions about religion and issues of biblical scholarship, creationism in the science classrooms of public schools is just not legal. Whether it is right or not, it has no place there; the Constitution guarantees that. It is not a scientific theory; it is a religious belief whether it pretends to be otherwise or not. It has a place in the social sciences if any place at all, not the natural sciences. Works Cited "Kitzmiller v. Dover: Intelligent Design on Trial". National Center for Science Education. October 17, 2008. Retrieved 21 June 2015. Gabel, John B. and Charles B. Wheeler. The Bible as Literature: An Introduction. New York: Oxford U P, 1986.

B-2 bomber :: essays research papers

WHAT IS THE B-2 BOMBER?   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Stealth Aircraft, military aircraft, fighters, and bombers designed to elude detection and tracking systems, such as radar and infrared monitoring. Stealth technology is used to mask unmanned objects such as cruise missiles. The United States is a world leader in developing and deploying stealth technology, although much about its program remains classified.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Stealth technology includes a variety of design features that affect an aircraft signal, also called its signature, on tracking systems. These features include an aircraft shape and the materials used to build it. For example, it is harder for a radar to detect an aircraft that has smooth and rounded curves. Special composite materials or coatings on the surface of an aircraft can absorb or deflect radar signals. Engines placed within the body of the aircraft and exhaust vents may be arranged to mask the heat coming from engines and help hide an aircraft from heat seeking sensors. Reducing the noise and vibrations produced by stealth aircraft may also minimize its acoustic signature. In addition, stealth aircraft are equipped with special electronics for suppressing or confusing enemy monitoring systems.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Since the use of radar during World War II (1939-1945), air forces worldwide have tried to develop methods of confusing radar or making it ineffective. Early attempts at this included the targeted aircraft attempting to electronically jam radar or to release metallic strips to produce false readings. However, in the 1950’s and 60’s, new electronic tracking methods and the new waves devised to confuse them kept pace with one another, prompting military engineers to look for ways to completely mask aircraft.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  American aeronautical engineer Clarence L.

Adapting the Law to the Online Environment Essay

Formulating unique conception of the Web in â€Å"Weaving the Web† Berners-Lee emphasized that the intention was to create a system with â€Å"one fundamental property: it had to be completely decentralized.† In the vision of Berners-Lee: â€Å"That would be the only way a new person   somewhere could start to use it [the Web] without asking for access from anyone else†[1]. In the initial years of the Web’s functioning, Berner-Lee’s ideal of a highly decentralized universal system has been shared by tens of millions of people around the world who have appreciated and marveled at an invention that makes it unexpectedly easy for anyone with a computer to connect with anyone else with a computer, anywhere in the world, and to store and send information almost at will. But the Internet and the Web have also moved to the center of attention for governments, business leaders, lawyers and judges, police forces and military establishments, and anyone else dependent on the rule of law and authority structures in modern society. This is a result of the ability and tendency of Internet users to simply skirt or leap over many of the rules and institutions designed to maintain order in the pre- Internet world. Previously designed rules and legal structures enacted for slower-paced, relatively public tangible transactions in a world rimmed everywhere with borders (local, provincial, national) suddenly were challenged as never before when the Internet made it physically conceivable to carry out transactions of almost any kind in a manner simultaneously immediate, anonymous, inexpensive, and seemingly borderless. However, the process of certain democratization, overcriminalization and simply lazier-affair went beyond predictable limits – internet identity theft, credit card fraud, controversies with gambling and online porn reveal significant need to adapt the law to online environment, to analyze the specifics of cyber crimes and to create effective regulatory norms. Traditional Crime and Cyber Crime: Defining Boundaries From the primary perspective, the Internet imitates and, in most cases, runs parallel to what is often happening in normal life, therefore, it is no wonder that the law had to take account of this new parallel of real life. Hence the frequent appeals for â€Å"cyberlaw† or â€Å"cyberspace law.† Simultaneously, the imitation of life by the Internet does not completely transcend existing forms of activities in their entirety. Thus while electronic forms of information are the hallmark of the Internet and tend to undermine tangible media, or even render them obsolete, prior forms of information may coexist alongside them, albeit uneasily and suffering permanent corrosion. In so far as it is not possible to divine the extent to which the Net will generate parallel or independent forms of activity, the development of the appropriate law cannot be predictable. One has to determine in each specific sphere of activity how far the parallels go and how big or small the change over the normal may have been before working out the legal response. Consequently, the lack of time or resources cannot be the main reasons for the non-development of Internet law, as Edwards and Waelde suggest[2], although they recognize, somewhat indirectly that the Internet is still developing and so must the Internet law. Edwards and Waelde view â€Å"Internet Law† as being a result of (the usual) adaptation process that the law undergoes to catch up with new technological phenomena. They regard Internet Law as a necessity, contrary to the â€Å"core pragmatic† perception of those they refer to as looking upon the Internet as law-free.[3] And although the regulation of Internet content, transactions and activities seems to be logical and self-evident, the problems start appearing from the very definition of cyber crime. Black’s Law Dictionary defines a â€Å"crime† as a â€Å"social harm that the law makes punishable; the breach of a legal duty treated as the subject-matter of a criminal proceeding.†[4] Anglo-American crim ­inal law has for centuries possessed a set of definitions of â€Å"crimes† that encompass the varied categories of social harms humans can inflict on one another, for instance homicide, rape, robbery, arson, vandalism, fraud, child abuse, etc. According to Susan Brenner, crimi ­nal law does not typically differentiate offenses based upon the instrumentalities that are used in their com ­mission; we generally do not, for example, divide homi ­cide into â€Å"murder by gun,† â€Å"murder by poison,† â€Å"mur ­der by strangulation† and so on.[5] As Brenner points out, criminal law does treat the use of certain instrumentalities as â€Å"aggravat ­ing factors,† the use of which can result in an enhanced sentence upon conviction; this is how criminal law gen ­erally deals with using a firearm or other dangerous in ­strumentality in the commission of a crime.[6] This approach could, perhaps, have been taken with regard to cyber crime; we could simply define hacking as a type of trespass, analogous to real-world trespass. The â€Å"crime† of real-world trespass is gaining access to a physical space – a building or a parcel of land – without authorization. We could have pursued hacking in an analogous fashion, perhaps prosecuting it as tres ­pass and then characterizing the use of computer tech ­nology as an aggravating factor.[7] However, that is not the approach the law has taken and is tak ­ing to the use of computer technology to inflict social harms. What is emerging is a division between tradi ­tional crimes (trespass, burglary, theft, stalking, etc.) and cyber crimes. The latter encompass the use of com ­puter technology to commit either (a) social harms that have already been identified and outlawed generically (trespass, burglary, theft, stalking, etc.) or (b) new types of social harm that do not fall into traditional â€Å"crime† categories. It is necessary to adopt cyber crime-specific laws for the first category of conduct because, as Brennan’s hacking-trespass example illustrates, computer tech ­nology can be used to commit social harms in ways that do not fit comfortably into our existing offense categories. Another Brennan’s example of a denial of service attack[8] simply eludes conventional crimi ­nal law: it is not theft; it is not extortion; it is not black ­mail; it is not vandalism or trespassing or any other â€Å"crime† that has so far been defined. We must, therefore, define new â€Å"cyber crimes† to encompass denial of service attacks and other â€Å"new† varieties of criminal activity. In conceptualizing the varieties of cyber crime, it is helpful to divide them into three categories offered by Marc Goodman: crimes in which the computer is the target of the criminal ac ­tivity, crimes in which the computer is a tool used to commit the crime, and crimes in which the use of the computer is an incidental aspect of the commission of the crime.[9] When a computer is the target of criminal activity, the perpetrator attacks an innocent user’s computer or computer system either by gaining unlawful access to it or by bombarding it from outside. Cybercrimes that fall into this category include simple hacking (gaining access to a computer system or part of a computer system without autho ­rization) and aggravated hacking (gaining access to a computer system or part of a computer system without authorization for the purpose of committing a crime such as copying or altering information in the system). The target cybercrimes also include denial of service attacks and the dissemination of viruses, worms and other types of malware. The cyber crimes in this cate ­gory tend to be â€Å"new† crimes and therefore generally require new legislation. A computer or computer system can also be the in ­strument that is used to commit what is essentially a traditional crime. Cybercrimes in which a computer is the tool used to carry out criminal activity include online fraud, theft, embezzlement, stalking and harass ­ment, forgery, obstruction of justice and the creation or dissemination of child pornography. These are conven ­tional crimes, but it may be difficult to prosecute online versions of these crimes using existing substantive law; a jurisdiction’s theft statute may not, for example, en ­compass a â€Å"theft† of intangible property when the theft consists of copying the property, instead of appropri ­ating it entirely. In State v. Schwartz, Oregon State of Appeal held that â€Å"†¦by copying the passwords, defendant stripped them of their value.†[10] Jurisdictions may therefore find it necessary to amend their existing substantive criminal law to ensure that it can be used against these cy ber crime variants of tradi ­tional crimes. The last category consists of cyber crimes in which the use of a computer or computer system is incidental to the commission of the crime. This category includes, for example, instances in which a murderer uses a com ­puter to plan a murder or lure the victim to the murder scene; it can also include a blackmailer’s using a com ­puter to write extortion letters to his victim or a drug dealer’s using a computer to monitor his sales, inventory and profits. Here, the computer is merely a source of evidence and new substantive criminal legislation is generally not needed. The cases in this category can, however, require new law to resolve procedural issues such as the processes used in gathering evidence of cyber crimes. The basic federal cyber crime provision is 18 U.S. Code  § 1030; among other things, it criminalizes hacking, cracking, computer fraud and the dissemination of viruses, worms and other types of malware. The statute accomplishes this by directing its prohi ­bitions at conduct that targets a â€Å"protected computer† and then defining â€Å"protected computer† as a computer encompassed by federal jurisdiction.[11] Section 1030 defined a â€Å"protected computer† as either (a) a computer used exclusively by a financial institution or the federal government or used nonexclusively by a financial institution or the federal govern ­ment if the conduct constituting the crime affects its use by the financial institution or federal government; or (b) a computer used in interstate or foreign commerce or communication.[12] The notion of basing the statute’s prohibitions on conduct directed at a â€Å"protected computer† was introduced when  § 1030 was a mended in 1996; until then, it criminalized con ­duct that was directed at â€Å"federal interest computers,† i.e., computers used by the federal government or lo ­cated in more than one state.[13] The 1996 amendment broadened  § 1030’s reach; it now encompasses conduct directed at any computer con ­nected to the Internet. In 2001, the Patriot Act amended  § 1030 to make it clear that the statute can be used to prosecute criminal conduct which occurred outside the United States, a position the Department of Justice had long taken, for instance in case United States v. Ivanov. The Patriot Act expanded the definition of a protected computer to include com ­puters used in interstate or foreign commerce that are located outside the United States if they are â€Å"used in a manner that affects interstate or foreign commerce or communication of the United States.†[14] Problematic Aspects: Copyright, Child Pornography, Identity Fraud in Internet In order to address the problems in regulation of online environment more effectively, this paper aims to focus on several most problematic aspects of the issue – copyright violations, child pornography and identity theft or credit card fraud. Defined by Culberg, copyright is â€Å"a legal device giving the author (or holder of the copy ­right) the exclusive right to control the reproduction of his or her intellectual creation† for a specific period of time.[15] Copyright law in the United States derives from the U.S. Constitution and is therefore exclusively federal; states do not have the authority to legislate in this area.[16] Defenses to a charge of criminal copyright infringe ­ment are, first, that the offense cannot be prosecuted be ­cause the five year statute of limitations has run.[17] Other defenses are the â€Å"first sale† doctrine and an argument that the defendant did not act â€Å"will ­fully.† The first sale doctrine lets one who purchased a copyrighted work freely distribute the copy she bought.[18] Under the doctrine, however, the purchaser can only distribute the copy she bought; she cannot copy the purchased item and distribute the copies.[19] Since most computer software is distributed through licensing agreements, the first sale doctrine typically does not apply when someone is charged with software piracy.[20] With regard to the claim that a defendant did not act â€Å"willfully,† there is some ambiguity as what is required to show â€Å"willfulness.† Courts disagree as to whether it requires an â€Å"intent to copy or intent to infringe.†[21] The newest weapon in the federal arsenal of copy ­right statutes is the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, which added two sections to title 17 of the U.S. Code. Section 1201 makes it unlawful to circumvent measures used to protect copyrighted works, while  § 1202 makes it unlawful to tamper with copyright management in ­formation. Another new section, 17 U.S. Code  § 1204, creates criminal penalties for violating either sections 1201 or 1202 of the DMCA. The first criminal prosecu ­tion under the DMCA was filed in 2001 against Dmitry Sklyarov, a Russian citizen, and his employer, Elcom ­soft, Ltd.[22] They were charged with violating 17 U.S. Code  § 1201(b) (l) (A), by trafficking in technology designed to circumvent the rights of a copyright owner, and with violating 17 U.S. Code  § 1201(b) (l) (C), by trafficking in technol ­ogy marketed for use in circumventing technology that protects the rights of a copyright owner. Another area that is a high priority in federal com ­puter crime prosecutions is child pornography. To un ­derstand the current state of the law outlawing child pornography, it is necessary to understand the First Amendment, which states, in part, that Congress is to make â€Å"no law †¦abridging the freedom of speech.† The U.S. Supreme Court has interpreted this part of the First Amendment as prohibiting the criminalization of any but a very few limited categories of speech: â€Å"[T]he First Amendment bars the government from dictating what we see or read or speak or hear. The freedom of speech has its limits; it does not embrace certain cat ­egories of speech, including defamation, incitement, obscenity, and pornography produced with real chil ­dren.†[23] From the critical as well statistical perspective, child pornography appears a relatively recent addi ­tion to the list. However, the rise of com ­puter technology raised concerns about â€Å"virtual† child pornography, i.e., pornography created using morphed or other artificial images of children, and in 1996 Congress adopted the Child Pornography Prevention Act, codified as 18 U.S. Code  § 2251. This Act extended the prohibitions on manufacturing, possess ­ing and distributing child pornography to encompass pornography that featured not only â€Å"real† children but what â€Å"appeared† to be a real child.[24] In 2001, a coalition of free speech advocates challenged these provisions of the federal child pornography statutes; they argued that because no â€Å"real† children are harmed in the creation of â€Å"virtual† child pornography, it does not fall under a category of speech that cannot constitutionally be criminalized.[25] When the case was before the Supreme Court, the Department of Justice argued that virtual child pornography can be criminalized because (a) pedophiles use it to seduce children into sexual acts and (b) it stimulates pedophiles into molesting chil ­dren.[26] The Supreme Court rejected these arguments and held that the prohibition of virtual child pornogra ­phy violated the First Amendment, so the statutory provisions at issue were unconstitutional and unenforce ­able.

How does Steinbeck explore the theme of loneliness in ‘Of Mice and Men’? Essay

In ‘Of Mice and Men’ Steinbeck deals with the theme of loneliness. I will be analysing the way in which Steinbeck explores loneliness at every angle. Analysis will include the futility of the American dream, the loneliness of the American man, a fully detailed character analysis showing loneliness and why Steinbeck chose to concentrate on the theme of loneliness. ‘Of mice and Men’ was written in 1937 and was amongst the three most powerful novels of the late 30’s, focusing on the Californian labouring class. ‘The Grapes of Wrath’ and ‘In Dubious Battle’ were the others. John Steinbeck was born in Salinas, in 1902, he grew up in an area where agriculture had been the main source of income. From here, he was bale to gather inspiration and produce amazing settings for some of the best fiction such as ‘Of Mice and Men’. The Great Depression, an era in which America had faced its longest trade recession in her history, bringing the country toward a stand still. People were fleeing like bees, running after jobs and money. Jobless men started to tour the country moving from state to state. Oklahoma and Arkansas faced the worst when farmers land was taken away. Historical records showed that a number of 30,000 people migrated to the state of California. ‘Where the grass was green, the soil was good and hopes were made’. Due to the Great depression, Steinbeck felt pushed out of his own state. From here he was able to draw on a situation and portray the ambitious dream resulting form the Great depression. George Milton and Lennie Small, both drifters, have nobody but each other. A dream absorbed in their minds, a dream in which someday they will have their own place, a place in which they could call home. Working in Salinas Valley, California, they hope to fulfil their dream. Lennie shows a downfall and their lives are horrified and their dream is no longer achievable. Of Mice and Men shows an excellent aspect toward real life situation especially at that time in California. Steinbeck shows and gives a great example of how the American dream was futile. The American dream is a vision in which all Americans are wanting to achieve. The success of owning their land and to once become bosses. Everybody is equal and all have a role to play in life. Everybody has enough to build a good home, make money and build a better life for themselves. Except black people. Despite the fact slavery had been over for a long period of time, thoughts and attitudes towards blacks were critical. Black people were not seen as important, but were only useful for menial jobs. ‘The best laid schemes Gang Aft Agley’ (often goes wrong). The best laid schemes often go wrong, due to the effect of loneliness and depression. Everybody has to work and help one another, without a helping hand, their hopes will not turn into reality. The American dream represents a way in which people may escape from a lonely place. They set themselves a goal and they are determined to achieve it. George and Lennie place hopes in their minds and say to each other what they are going to achieve. Here they become motivated and set their mind away from the lonely situation. They believe that they will make enough to live ‘off the fat of the land’. They hope to become their own bosses. All this is a result from the American dream and the loneliness of the American man.

The Hunters: Phantom Chapter 10

Elder blossoms can be used for exorcism, protection, or prosperity, Bonnie read, lying flopped down on her bed, chin propped on her hands. Mix with comfrey and coltsfoot and bind in red silk during a waxing moon to make a charm bag for attracting wealth. Distill in a bath with lavender, feverfew, and motherwort for personal protection. Burn with hyssop, white sage, and devil's shoestring to create a smoke that can be used in exorcising bad spirits. Devil's shoestring? Was that real y an herb? Unlike most of the others, it didn't sound like something she'd find in her mother's garden. She sighed noisily and skipped ahead a little. The best herbs for aiding meditation are agrimony, chamomile, damiana, eyebright, and ginseng. They may be tossed together and burned to create smoke or, when picked at dawn, dried and sprinkled around the subject in a circle. Bonnie eyed the thick book baleful y. Pages and pages and pages of herbs and what their properties were in different circumstances, and when to gather them, and how to use them. Al written as dryly and dul y as her high school geometry textbook. She had always hated studying. The best thing about the summer between high school and col ege was that no one could expect her to spend any time tucked up with a heavy book, trying to memorize excessively boring facts. Yet here she was, doing just that, and she'd total y brought it on herself. But when she had asked Mrs. Flowers to teach her magic, she had expected something, wel , cooler than being handed a heavy book on herbs. Secretly, she had been hoping for one-on-one sessions that involved casting spel s, or flying, or summoning fantastical servants to do her bidding. Less reading quietly to herself, anyway. Shouldn't there be some way that magical knowledge could just implant itself in her brain? Like, wel , magical y? She flipped forward a few more pages. Ooh, this looked a bit more interesting. An amulet filled with cinnamon, cowslip, and dandelion leaves will help in attracting love and fulfilling secret desires. Gather the herbs in a gentle rain and, after drying, bind them with red velvet and gold thread. Bonnie giggled and kicked her feet against the mattress, thinking that she could probably come up with some secret desires to fulfil . Did she need to pick the cinnamon, or would it be okay to just get it out of the spice cupboard? She turned a few more pages. Herbs for clarity of sight, herbs for cleansing, herbs that had to be gathered under the ful moon or on a sunny day in June. She sighed once more and closed the book. It was past midnight. She listened, but the house was quiet. Her parents were sleeping. Now that her sister Mary, who'd been the last of Bonnie's three older sisters to leave home, had moved in with her boyfriend, Bonnie missed having her right down the hal . But there were also advantages to not having her nosy, bossy big sister so close. She climbed out of bed as quietly and cautiously as she could. Her parents weren't as sharp-eared as Mary, but they would come and check on her if they heard her getting up in the middle of the night. Careful y, Bonnie pried up a floorboard under her bed. She had used it as her hiding place ever since she was a little girl. At first she had kept a dol she'd borrowed from Mary without permission; a secret candy stash bought with her al owance; her favorite red silk ribbon. Later, she'd hidden notes from her first boyfriend, or tests she'd failed. Nothing as sinister as what was hidden there now, though. She lifted out another book just as thick as the volume on herbs Mrs. Flowers had lent her. But this one was olderlooking, with a dark leather cover wrinkled and softened by time. This book was from Mrs. Flowers's library, too, but Mrs. Flowers hadn't given it to her. Bonnie had snuck it off the shelf while Mrs. Flowers's back was turned, sliding it into her backpack and projecting her most innocent face when Mrs. Flowers's sharp eyes lingered on her afterward. Bonnie felt a bit guilty tricking Mrs. Flowers like that, especial y after the old woman agreed to mentor her. But, honestly, no one else would have had to sneak the book out in the first place. Any reason Meredith or Elena gave for wanting it would have immediately been accepted by everybody as right and true. They wouldn't even have to give a reason, just say that they needed the book. It was only Bonnie who would be sighed at and patted on the head – sweet, silly Bonnie – and stopped from doing what she wanted . Bonnie stubbornly set her chin and traced the letters on the book's cover. Traversing the Boundaries Between the Quick and the Dead, they read. Her heart was pounding as she opened the book to the page she'd marked earlier. But her hands were quite steady as she removed four candles, two white and two black, from beneath the floorboard. She struck a match, lit one of the black candles, and tilted it to drip wax on the floor beside her bed. When there was a little pool of melted wax, Bonnie pressed the bottom of the candle into it, so that it stood upright on the floor. â€Å"Fire in the North, protect me,† she intoned. She reached for a white candle. Plugged into its charger on the bedside table, her phone rang. Bonnie dropped the candle and swore. Leaning over, she picked up the phone to see who was cal ing. Elena. Of course. Elena never realized how late it was when she wanted to talk to somebody. Bonnie was tempted to press â€Å"ignore,† but thought better of it. Maybe this was a sign that she shouldn't perform the ritual after al , at least not tonight. Maybe she should do some more research first to make sure she was doing it right. Bonnie blew out the black candle and pushed the button to answer her phone. â€Å"Hey, Elena,† she said, hoping her friend didn't sense her irritation as she placed the book gently back under the floorboard. â€Å"What's up?† The ash was unbearably heavy. He strained against it, pushing at the blanket of gray holding him down. He clawed frantical y, a panicked part of him wondering whether he was even going upward at al , whether he might not instead be digging himself farther under the surface. One of his hands was clutched tightly around something – something fine and fibrous, like thin petals. He didn't know what it was, but he knew he shouldn't let go of it, and despite the fact that it hampered his struggle, he did not question this need to hold on. It seemed as if he were clawing at the thick ash forever, but final y his other hand broke through the crumbling layers and relief flooded his body. He'd been going the right way; he wasn't going to be buried forever. He reached out blindly, searching for something he could use to lever himself out. Ash and mud slid under his fingers, giving him nothing firm, and he floundered until he found what felt like a piece of wood in his grasp. The edges of the wood bit into his fingers as he clung to it as though it were a lifeline in a stormy ocean. He gradual y maneuvered his way up, slipping and sliding in the slick mud. With one last great effort, he wrenched his body out of the ash and mud, which gave a thick sucking noise as his shoulders emerged. He climbed to his knees, his muscles screaming in agony, then to his feet. He shuddered and shook, nauseated but euphoric, and wrapped his arms around his torso. But he couldn't see anything. He panicked until he realized something was holding his eyes shut. He scrubbed at his face until he detached sticky clumps of ashy mud from his eyelashes. After a moment, he was final y able to open his eyes. A desolate wasteland surrounded him. Blackened mud, puddles of water choked with ash. â€Å"Something terrible happened here,† he said hoarsely, the sound startling him. It was so profoundly quiet. It was freezing, and he realized he was naked, covered with only the same muddy ash that was everywhere. He hunched over and then, cursing himself for his momentary weakness, painful y straightened himself up. He had to†¦ He†¦ He couldn't remember. A drop of liquid ran down his face, and he wondered vaguely whether he was crying. Or was it the thick, shimmering fluid that was everywhere here, mixing with the ash and mud? Who was he? He didn't know that, either, and that blankness triggered a trembling in him that was quite separate from the shivering caused by the cold. His hand was stil clenched protectively around the unknown object, and he raised his fist and stared at it. After a moment, he slowly uncurled his fingers. Black fibers. Then a drop of the opalescent fluid ran across his palm, over the middle of the fibers. Where it touched, they transformed. It was hair. Silky blond and copper hair. Quite beautiful. He closed his fist again and held them against his chest, a new determination building inside him. He had to go. Through the haze, a clear picture of his destination sprang into his mind. He shuffled forward through the ash and mud, toward the castlelike gatehouse with high spires and heavy black doors that he somehow knew would be there.